One example of an Alpha bias theory is Kohlberg's theory of moral development, Kohlberg work was derived from male participants, he believed that the average male would reach stage four at least, whereas female would only reach stage 3. Stage 4 represents law and order orientation, Kohlberg believed that a person who was at stage 3 of moral development was less mature than a person on stage four, therefore he believed that women where less mature than men. This view was then criticised by Gilligan (1982) who suggested that women make moral decisions in a different way to men (care and responsibility rather than justice).
However Gilligan’s theory has also been criticised for being slightly gender bias as male and female reasoning is a lot similar than her work suggests. Also Unger and Crawford have argued that Gilligan’s study failed to show factors other than gender that could affect out moral reasoning such as, social class, race, ethnicity or education.
An example of a Beta bias theory is Asch (1955) study of opinons and social pressure, Asch used 123 male participants in his study, he believed that humans have a very strong tenancy to conform to group pressures in a situation where the answer is clear. Asch assumed women behave in the same way under group pressure, without validation.
Neto (1995) criticised Asch’s study as Gender bias and in his own study found that women actually conform more than men. This was then explained this in terms of the fact that women are more interested in social relationships than men, so this means that in an experimental situation they will have far different short terms goals than men will, so in the end they appear to be more conforms than they are normally.
From this evidence I believe that psychology does represent a gender bias view of human behaviour because most studies consist of either just males being tested or results from females just being ignored.
Zoe Taylor
